monument

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A structure, such as a building or sculpture, erected as a memorial.
2. n. An inscribed marker placed at a grave; a tombstone.
3. n. Something venerated for its enduring historic significance or association with a notable past person or thing: the architectural monuments of ancient Rome; traditions that are monuments to an earlier era.
4. n. An outstanding enduring achievement: a translation that is a monument of scholarship.
5. n. An exceptional example: "Thousands of them wrote texts, some of them monuments of dullness” ( Robert L. Heilbroner).
6. n. An object, such as a post or stone, fixed in the ground so as to mark a boundary or position.
7. n. A written document, especially a legal one.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Anything by which the memory of a person, a period, or an event is preserved or perpetuated; hence, any conspicuous, permanent, or splendid building, as a medieval cathedral, or any work of art or industry constituting a memorial of the past; a memorial.
2. n. Specifically, a pile, pillar, or other structure erected expressly in memory of events, actions, or persons.
3. n. A stone shaft, or a structure of stone or other enduring material, erected over a grave in memory of the dead.
4. n. 4. A burial-vault; a tomb.
5. n. Any enduring evidence or example; a singular or notable instance.
6. n. In surveying and the law of conveyancing, any object, natural or artificial, fixed in the soil and referred to in a deed or other document as a means of ascertaining the location of a tract of land or any part of its boundaries. In this sense the word is applied to such objects as trees, riverbanks, and ditches; and its importance is in the general rule that in case of discrepancy courses or distances mentioned in a description must give way so far as necessary to conform to a monument.
7. n. A treatise.
8. n. Distinctive mark; stamp.
9. n. =Syn. 1-3. Memento, etc. See memorial.
10. To erect a monument in memory of.
11. To place monuments on; adorn with monuments: as, a region monumented with glorious deeds.
12. n. A conspicuous crag of a somewhat pillar-like and symmetrical form.

Wiktionary

1. n. A structure built for commemorative or symbolic reasons, or as a memorial; a commemoration.
2. n. An important site owned by the community as a whole.
3. n. An exceptional or proud achievement.
4. n. An important burial vault or tomb.
5. n. A legal document.
6. n. A surveying reference point marked by a permanently fixed marker (a survey monument).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Something which stands, or remains, to keep in remembrance what is past; a memorial.
2. n. A building, pillar, stone, or the like, erected to preserve the remembrance of a person, event, action, etc.. Also, a tomb, with memorial inscriptions.
3. n. A stone or other permanent object, serving to indicate a limit or to mark a boundary.
4. n. A saying, deed, or example, worthy of record.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a burial vault (usually for some famous person)
2. n. an important site that is marked and preserved as public property
3. n. a structure erected to commemorate persons or events